


Shirtsleeves

by endika



Series: Supercorp as songs [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Panic Attacks, Sharing a Bed, but like a brief mention, just them being gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26700691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endika/pseuds/endika
Summary: While patrolling late one night, Kara hears Lena crying inside her office. So what does she do? Of course she goes there and talks her through it.This started as a Shirtlseeves songfic and ended up being this, enjoy I guess?
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Series: Supercorp as songs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944376
Comments: 8
Kudos: 229





	Shirtsleeves

She had been roaming the city for a while now, it looked like a quiet night, for that she was thankful. Those past few days had been exhausting, threats and deadlines which seemed never-ending. To say that Kara was tired was an understatement. She continued floating above the buildings, and even though her body felt like it was ready to pass out any second now, her mind was on an overdrive. 

"Supergirl, I think we can call it a night," Said Alex through the intercom. "God knows you need some rest."

"Okay, see you tomorrow, heart emoji."

"Did you just use 'heart emoji' out loud?"

"Cut me some slack, I'm tired."

"Okay, okay, but get some sleep, will you?"

"Fine _mom._ "

"Hey don't you-" But Kara had already cut the communication. She loved her sister, but right now she needed some calm.

Kara had learned from a young age to tune her super-hearing to things, sounds, that offered her some peace of mind. She didn't use it as much as when she first arrived on Earth, but on days like this, when the only thing she wanted was to disappear for a while, she searched for them. Recently, whenever she used that method, the first sound she heard was the soft murmur of a heartbeat. She didn't know whom it belonged to, but that easy rhythm always soothed her. Today she was looking out for it again, trying to find it amongst the city noise, but when she did, it was beating faster than usual. The heartbeat she had grown used to seemed distressed, so she decided to follow the source. Kara had never done that before, seeking out the heartbeat's owner, and she was wondering if her actions weren't actually borderline creepy. Even if it was kind of odd to do that, she figured she could just check on that person, make sure nothing was wrong and finally go to sleep. 

She kept flying towards the sound and ended up in the business district of town. The rapid hum was followed by quiet hiccups, which Kara quickly realized were in an effort to stop crying. She found the source at the top of the L-Corp tower, inside Lena's office. Kara arrived at the CEO's balcony in the blink of an eye. She tapped on the glass doors, and that seemed to catch the other woman's attention, who quickly scrambled for some semblance of composure on her way to open the door.

"Good evening Supergirl, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Her words were hoarse and a tad slurred, as if she had been drinking. "I'm sure there are plenty of criminals that need to be stopped out there, so what's the mighty Supergirl doing here? Checking that the last of the Luthors standing doesn't turn evil?"

"Miss Luthor, have you been drinking?" She already knew the answer.

"No..." Kara stared at her intently "Perhaps."

"Come on, let's go get you sober."

She wasn't expecting an answer, so she simply started walking towards the sofa, waiting for the younger woman to follow her. When she had her sitting on the couch, she got up and filled a cup of water, which she offered Lena when she sat down again. The Luthor took it and drank it dutifully, and once she had finished she started talking.

"Lex called today, you know?" That statement didn't surprise Kara, in all honesty, there were few times she had seen her best friend cry, and they were all related to her family. "He tried to convince me again, he tried to make me think his beliefs were right, he threatened me again. The usual, I guess." It wasn't so much the words Lena said, but the resigned tone in which she said them that made Kara worry. "What if I turn out to be like him someday? What if I choose wrong and all I've worked for just crumbles to the floor?"

"Miss Luthor," Supergirl waited for Lena to look at her. "I assure you, that's not gonna happen."

Lena was truly shocked at the way the Super declared those words. She couldn't believe someone could really think that. But here she was, in front of the woman who should hate her, but somehow, believed in her. She was taken by surprise when a hand appeared in front of her face. She briefly wondered what was happening, until she felt the fabric of Supergirl's shirtsleeves wiping the tears escaping from her eyes. A silent whimper broke free from her lips.

"Hey, come here." Kara opened her arms, and Lena threw herself into them.

In the morning, when she was sober, she would blame it all on the alcohol. Now, she only wanted to be held. The Kryptonian tightened her hold on the brunette.

"Do you know why I came by your office today?" Lena didn't answer, so Kara kept talking. "I had just finished my patrol and I was about to go home, but I-" Dear Rao, she was going to sound like a creep. "But I was trying to relax, and there are certain sounds that usually calm me, and one of them is a heartbeat, which today I discovered was yours. I mean, I'm used to sounds overwhelming me and my senses. To be honest, National City is quite rowdy and noisy. So anyway, I was trying to find that heartbeat, _your_ heartbeat, but it was faster than usual, so I decided to check in and-"

"Breathe please" Lena looked at her amusedly.

"Yeah. Of course. Sorry." The blonde stammered "Basically, I was looking out for your heartbeat and I realized you were crying, so I decided to drop by."

Lena was gazing up at Kara from her arms with an inscrutable look. It was then that she noticed their faces were mere inches apart. 

The Luthor was smiling at her. Some treacherous tears started falling from the corners of her eyes, so Kara brought her hand up again and lightly wiped it over the brunette's cheeks. Once she had finished her ministrations, she wrapped her arms around Lena, who closed her eyes and placed her head on the Super's shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, until Kara heard soft snores coming from her friend. Looking around the office, she noticed a clock. It was almost 1am. She laid Lena down gently, as if she could break at any moment, and started unwrapping herself from her hold.

She got up and started looking for some kind of blanket around the room. The least she could do was make sure Lena wasn't cold when morning came. She scanned the room, but still, she didn't find anything that could cover a human properly. She briefly considered the idea of improvising a blanket with the toilet paper in Lena's bathroom, but decided against it. Who knew if there could someday be a shortage of this precious resource due to a global pandemic? In the end she took her cape off and carefully, as to not wake her up, placed it over the sleeping figure. 

She left a cup of water and a sticky note with a smiley face that read 'Hope you get better, in the morning I'm sure you'll be a _sober_ hero again'.

Before she left, she took one last look at the woman sleeping peacefully on the couch.

"I wish they could see you like I do, Lena" And with that, she opened the door and left the office behind.

Lena woke up with a dulled hungover feeling, as if she had sobered up a bit before going to sleep. She vaguely remembered the events that took place the night before. She obviously remembered the whole 'Kara seeing her drunk off her ass wallowing in self-pity' fiasco, but she didn't know how she ended up on her couch. Kara must have put her there. And yeah, of course she knew Supergirl was Kara Danvers. A pair of glasses and a ponytail? Who would even fall for that? A lot of people it seemed.

She looked at the clock across her office. She still had time to make herself presentable and arrange everything. 

The blanket draped over her smelled of cinnamon and something inherently _Kara._ The fabric was nothing she had seen before, and wait a second, where those plated clasps? This wasn't a regular blanket, this was Supergirl's cape. When she sat up, her eyes caught sight of a cup of water filled to the brim and a sticky note with a silly pun. She smiled at the thoughtfulness that characterized Kara. What a dork.

She got up from the couch, gently folded the cape and left it on the balcony. 

When she went outside later, the cape was no longer there. 

And so it became routine.

Lena would have a bad day, and Kara would appear, ready to deal with a drunk and clingy CEO with family issues. And every morning, she'd wake up surrounded by Kara's smell and a silly pun next to a cup of water.

She would then proceed to fold the cape and leave it on her balcony.

When she returned, the cape was gone, as if nothing had happened.

They still ate lunch together, at least once a week. But that was Kara Danvers, who didn't know anything about her late night rendezvous with Supergirl. 

They kept pretending everything was alright.

It was not. 

It was one of those nights when it finally happened.

It had started as usual, Lena had gotten a call from her megalomaniacal brother telling how little she was worth, how she was going to turn like him, how it was all just a matter of time. She should’ve been used to it by now, but it had already been a particularly bad day so as soon as the call ended, she told Jess to cancel all her meetings for the rest of the evening. This time she didn’t throw herself onto drinking, she just sat down on the couch, curled up and stared blankly ahead.

That's how Kara found her sometime later.

She stepped into the office and approached her like she was a hurt animal, softly, barely making any sound, like she would run if she sensed any threat. 

"Hey." It was said in such a quiet tone that the brunette wondered if it had even been said.

"Hey." Lena's voice was hoarse and raspy, but not slurred like the previous times.

"Can I come closer?"

The Luthor didn't answer, she nodded her head and waited for the blonde to approach her. But rather than sitting next to her on the couch, she kneeled in front of the CEO, using her position as an excuse to take the other woman’s shoes off. Once she had finished, she stood up again and finally sat next to her. Kara didn't waste any time and quickly wrapped her arms around Lena. That seemed to finally break the dam, and she started crying like there was no tomorrow. With the tears also came the hiccups, until her breathing became too ragged and she started hyperventilating.

"Shh... Lena look at me. You're okay. I'm here. No one can hurt you. You're safe." She kept on spilling simple words of assurance, but that seemed to do nothing for the other woman. "Lena, Lena. Hey, look at me." She raised the Luthor's face. Her eyes were reddened, looking anywhere and everywhere, but still unfocused. Her breathing wasn't calming down anytime soon. 

Kara was quite familiar with panic attacks, she'd had her fair share when she first arrived on Earth, so she hurriedly tried to think of methods for calming her friend down. She had read that chewing an ice-cube could help ground people with ongoing attacks. The problem would be bringing ice to Lena now. The little refrigerator in her office was on the other side of the room, and it probably only contained the most expensive alcoholic beverages one could imagine. She didn’t want to leave Lena alone, so she did the next best thing she could think of.

She kissed her.

Supergirl was kissing Lena. 

_Kara_ was kissing Lena.

The Luthor was, quite literally, speechless. She started to feel cold where their lips met. Was Kara using her freeze breath? Suddenly, there was something even colder tracing her lips, a tongue, asking for permission. She opened her mouth and felt it collide with her own. It was almost frozen. After a while, it became quite painful. Kara must have noticed her discomfort, because a second later they were no longer kissing.

Lena was looking at her with a questioning look, much more calmed now, but as if she didn’t understand what exactly had happened.

"I-" Was Supergirl blushing? "I read somewhere that during a panic attack you had to divert your attention, and one of the methods they used was biting into an ice-cube. Since the refrigerator was too far away, and I didn't want to leave you alone, I used my freeze breath." She stopped herself before she went off on a tangent.

Lena tilted her head and stared at her with a look she couldn't figure out. It was then that the blonde realized she could still taste salt water from the tear covered lips she'd been kissing moments ago. 

"Thanks." It was but a whisper. "That was smart."

A chuckle escaped Kara's lips.

"Says the certified genius."

"Then you should believe it."

"Oh, I should, shouldn't I?" She teased back, but then a serious expression settled over her face. "Now, for real, are you feeling slightly better?"

"Of course I'm better, you're here Ka- Supergirl!" Fuck. _Way to go Lena…_

"How did- I mean, is it- Are you mad?" 

"I'm not mad." She looked thoughtful for a moment and then kept going "I'll admit, I was pretty upset at the beginning, but then I understood you had your reasons, so I decided I'd let you come out to me on your own terms."

"Okay, I feel like this isn’t a conversation we should have when you just had a panic attack. So... your place or mine?" She finished the sentence with a wink.

"Oh my God, you're unbelievable."

"Hey you, I was being serious, I'm not gonna let you sleep one more night in such an uncomfortable couch." She glared at the offending object. "Even less after all of this." 

"Can we just go home?" A couple seconds passed before she realized she'd said home when referring to Kara's apartment. She really was dense today. However, the blonde understood her.

"Wanna fly there? It's faster and eco-friendly."

"Sure, but don't drop me." _Hold me,_ she wanted to say, _and don't let me go._ She really was smitten, wasn’t she?

"I wouldn't dream of it."

The trip back to Kara's apartment was quiet. They got in through the living room’s windows, but the Super kept walking with Lena in her arms until they reached her bedroom. Once there, she carefully laid her on the queen sized bed. Kara offered her some pyjamas, which she quickly accepted.

“I’m gonna go change in the bathroom, I’ll leave you to it.”

Lena stayed in the room and slowly started to change. When she finished, she got under the covers and waited for Kara. She heard the bathroom door open, and the light from inside reached her eyes for a couple of seconds until Kara turned it off. The Super was about to leave to go sleep on the couch, when she heard a faint whisper.

“Stay, please.”

She was about to protest, tempted to say she could sleep on the couch, it wouldn’t bother her, after all, she was Supergirl, she could sleep-fly. But when she looked back at Lena she couldn’t find it in herself to deny her. So she stayed. Kara turned off the bedside lamp and got under the covers. She laid on her side, facing Lena. The younger woman shifted closer to the Kryptonian.

“You are warm.” She draped her arm over Kara’s midsection, placed her head over the Super’s chest and tangled their legs together. “Is this okay?”

“Yeah, it very much is.” 

Lena felt soft fingers caressing her hair and slowly drifted to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was my first fic, comments and constructive reviews are always welcome :)


End file.
